Kaposi’s sarcoma in organ transplantation (Lyon Experience, 1965–1995)

Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) or Kaposi’s disease has been especially observed in certain groups of patients: elderly individuals from Mediterranean countries or Central Europe, young Black Africans (“endemic forms”), AIDS patients (with a possibility of rapidly severe evolution of Kaposi’s disease), homosexual males without HIV infection, transplant patients treated with immunosuppressive therapy. The frequency of this disease, formerly relatively rare, and its evolutive course, comparatively slow in the past, have been significantly modified with the emergence of the AIDS epidemic and with the rapidly increasing number of patients subjected to prolonged immunosuppressive therapy to prevent transplant rejection.